Red dirt service economies: a picture of trade-offs and choices

We use the term Red Dirt Service Economies (RDSE) to describe the mix of people, places, contexts, administration, policy and politics that contribute to services in remote and very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. RDSE include financial, social, environmental and cultural trade-offs. These are values trade-offs which recognise the agency choices and standpoint of those participating in everyday service economies. We compare values trade-offs of Eastern Arrernte in central Australia with a national study of social and economic values trade-offs, and find that the way constituents recognise themselves as actors significantly shapes their engagement with RDSE. We suggest that opening RDSE through values trade-offs has potential to redistribute the influence of local people, place and contexts to shape opportunities drawn from their aspiration, advantage and agency. We conclude that RDSE thus become ‘fit for purpose’ and act as conduits from local to other national and global economic activities.